


A place where I can rest

by TopazOwl



Category: Korean Drama, Man From The Stars
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-18
Updated: 2014-03-01
Packaged: 2018-01-09 03:31:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1140909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TopazOwl/pseuds/TopazOwl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“There is someone who I do not want to be forgotten by.” A handful of drabbles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The title "a place where I can rest" comes from a line in Lim Kim's "Without Knowing It All."

He buys her chicken and beer.

(He purchases the chicken and beer, reflexive, handing it to her with an annoyed flick of his wrist. He does not protest when she drags him inside, her excitement palpable.)

She won’t stop mumbling about rejections after her first beer, and she completely ignores the annoyed glare he flashes her when she spills her second beer when it is only halfway from reaching her lips.

“ _Yah_! Do you know how many deals I rejected today?” She doesn’t wait for him to answer, just begins to count them off with her fingers. “Cosmetics! Sportswear! Jewelry! Coffee!”  
“Do you know how many calories are in their coffee? Sportswear? Do they think I honestly have time to go hiking? What if I injured my ankle, and had to cancel a shoot?”

The ranting winds down after he remains unresponsive for several minutes, busy wiping up after her mess, because he _knows_ that she won’t.


	2. Chapter 2

“You bullied your father into speaking formally?” She whispers, scandalized, which means that Young Mok hears her, and has to hide a chuckle.

“I did no such thing!”

“Father is precious.”

“Would you stop calling him father?”

She ignores him, already walking away, her gaze intent on the food. “Father! Let me help you with that!”

(He ignores the frisson of warmth when she calls Young Mok _abeoji_ , because to pay such an inexplicable feeling any mind would be absurd.)


	3. Chapter 3

“What in the world are you reading?”

She glances up briefly, flicking to the next page of her comic. The title _Love Celeb_ hardly looks promising, but a glimpse of the content caught his attention.

“Are you reading erotica?” He sounds incredulous, and he has to swallow back his horror to ask: “Is that what I borrowed for you…?”

“What? Did you think I only read children’s comics?” She sniffs, haughty, but also very much biting back a grin.   
“This is hardly erotica. A _little_ adult content here and there, well, I am nearly thirty.”

He stares at her.

“Look! Kirara is being seduced by Gin, who has launched her into stardom!”

She angles the book so that he can see the page she is on, but he quickly closes his eyes, holding up a hand. He remembers the expression on the comic store owner’s face as she helped him find _A Butler at a Studio Room_ and _Overnight in the Office with My Greedy Boss_. Smut. Erotica. _Hentai_.

“Would you like to borrow one?” She asks gleefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love Celeb is a shojo manga series written by Mayu Shinjo. I think Song Yi would find it hilarious and titillating.


	4. Chapter 4

“I felt like crap many times after I hit the bottom. But there’s a silver lining: I can sort people. My real friends and my camouflaged foes.”

 

Song Yi has been sorting people for as long as she can remember. She organizes friends and family and acquaintances into categories, because she never wants to mistakenly put faith in someone that does not belong. She knows what to expect from an acquaintance (not much), and what to hope for in a friend (so few), though she ultimately only truly trusts herself.

A miscategorized friend can cut deep wounds and inflict greater harm than a known foe. Song Yi thought of Se Mi as a friend, loyal and quietly calm, and it hurts more than she will ever admit to discover that she has been nursing an asp at her bosom all along.

 

* * *

 

Se Mi is tired of being overlooked. She has long since realized that it is impossible to be friends with someone that overlooks you.

(Hee Kyung’s love for Song Yi does not count in Se Mi’s equation. She does not hate Song Yi for being Hee Kyung’s unrequited love, because Hee Kyung’s feelings are his own.)

Se Mi thinks of all the energy Song Yi put into competing with other actresses, and then all of the scraps that were offered to her. Se Mi grits her teeth and smiles and _tries_ so hard to compete, to launch her star into the ring, and there Song Yi is, bratty and so noisy, offering her leftovers like she is a starving dog.

Se Mi has long since realized that it is impossible to be friends with someone that overlooks you.

Because it hurts to root for someone that is not (and will never) root for you.


	5. Chapter 5

“And when you do this, I dislike you even more.”

 

Pitiful. Her. Song Yi. Korea’s Number #1 Actress. Most voted as desirable wife.

(No. It isn’t just that, though she will bluster in indignation.)

Song Yi works hard. She endures her mother’s machinations. She endures her father leaving. She endures loosing friends and making enemies. More and more odds are stacked against her, but she _survives_.

It stings that he calls her pitiful. Manager Do. Her crabby neighbor. Her severe professor. Her protector. _Do Min Joon_.

Do Min Joon knows that she likes comics, and that she craves chicken and beer when it snows. He was there when she fell from the top, spiraling downwards faster than it took for her to get there. He saw her cry. He helps her when everyone has turned their backs on her.

_'I dislike you even more.'_

So, it is so easy to second guess every moment they have spent together, wondering if he has been inwardly counting the seconds to escape. She wonders why the cell phone. She tries to wrap her mind around the countless meals. She recalls the sting of glass, and his arms lifting her up. (There is the blurriness and terror as her car inches closer to the cliff, and the sight of him blocking its way. There is Min Joon in the car, and then suddenly pushing her out of the way of a falling fish bowl.)

Logic wars against speculation. Song Yi isn’t dumb, though everyone believes her to be. She can’t make sense of Do Min Joon spending any amount of time with her, celebrity or no, because he has no patience for annoyances. Do Min Joon is not the type to waste any of his time in matters that do not interest him.

“Why do I think you’re lying?”

Walking away hurts. She wants to take back all her words and pretend to have never fallen for him. Confessing takes courage, but walking away, her boots crunching in the cold snow, makes her feel ten times smaller. Dejected.

No. It isn’t just that, though she will bluster in indignation. It’s the end of eating together. It’s the end of entering and leaving his apartment whenever she feels like it. It’s the end of comfort and safety and familiarity and companionship, which sting the most.


	6. Chapter 6

Song Yi isn’t an ideal friend. She never comes when you call. She is always busy. She forgets to ask how you are, if you have eaten, if you are free to talk. She is incredibly pushy. She is also the loyalist friend anyone could have.

For all her faults, Song Yi is loyal to Hong. She might change her likes on a whim, going from one interest to another. She might like a hairstyle one day, and hate it the next. But she’s been friends with Hong for years. Friends since middle school.

Hong isn’t surprised that Song Yi’s friendship with Se Mi ends, fractured from years worth of jealousy and selfishness. Se Mi stuck by Song Yi’s side with a smile, which emptied over time until it was only there out of spite; it was a dead person’s smile, all rigor, and no warmth that crinkles the eyes. 

Song Yi marches into the bookstore, demanding attention. She only ever asks if Hong is free until after she has suggested that they get something to eat. When Hong is in the middle of a bowl of ramen, Song Yi has no qualms greedily sucking down the noodles. Although Song Yi never admits it, Hong knows the bookstore is her place of safety, a place where she can go to let loose. And even though she rarely says it, Hong knows that Song Yi is glad of their friendship.


	7. Chapter 7

Min Joon is stiff in her arms, and his awkwardness is perfect. He sounds like a grandpa as he complains about her forwardness, which she finds adorable. It’s when his arm around her begins to soften that she lets her mind wander.

They have four walls and a ceiling. The lights are off. They are wrapped around each other in a bed. Despite her brother’s assertions, Min Joon is not trying anything, and she never expected him to. (She wouldn’t object if he did, though. Try things. She might have been raised conservatively, but she is nearly thirty, and Min Joon is very handsome…)

If kisses make him sick, what about…?

She stills, holding her breath, and stares up at the dark ceiling. Her cheeks fuse with warmth.

“What’s wrong?” He is instantly alert, his arm tensing about her shoulder.

“Hmm? Oh, _nothing_.” She does not hide her devious smile, knowing that he cannot see it pressed against his sweater, hidden in the darkness. There will be a time later, when things have settled, that she will broach the subject. “Go to sleep.”


End file.
